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Abstract

Objective: Moderate consumption of alcohol, particularly red wine, has been shown to decrease cardiac risk. We used a hypercholesterolemic swine model of chronic ischemia to examine the effects of two alcoholic beverages on the heart.

Results: Perfusion to the ischemic territory as measured by microsphere injection was significantly increased in both HCW and HCV compared to HCC at rest, but increased only in the HCW group under ventricular pacing. Microvessel relaxation response to adenosine 5’-diphosphate was improved in the HCW group alone, as was regional contractility in the ischemic territory, though myocardial fibrosis was decreased in both HCW and HCV. Expression of pro-angiogenic proteins phospho-eNOS and VEGF was increased in both HCW and HCV, while phospho-mTOR was increased only in the HCV group. Expression of Sirt-1 and downstream antioxidant phospho-FoxO1 was increased only in the HCW group. Protein oxidative stress was decreased in the HCW group alone, while capillary density was increased only in the HCV group (Table 1). There was no difference in platelet function between groups.